Salute
by ScarletEmpress2017
Summary: What if some Leaguers were asked the question: Who am I? My International Women's Day project, Women of the Justice League speak on what their lives have been, and how they dealt with blows given. (Star'verse compliant)
1. Dinah Lance-Black Canary

I have a strange life.

It has been filled with wonder, danger, amazement, and sorrow. But by your average standards, quite strange. I took up my mother's legacy as Black Canary. She was one of the first heroes of the Justice Society, and well-respected at that. I wear her mantle as an honor; she made leaps and bounds in a time where women were not expected to take more than a few small steps. And I wanted to be just like that. I wanted to be someone who would stand in between the right and wrong. Fight and protect. I also wanted to be someone girls could look up to, and say 'I want to be like that'.

But when my Canary Cry developed, I nearly deafened my entire class. After that, I had been so afraid. Afraid that I would hurt instead of help. I had stopped talking altogether. Lucky for me, it didn't last long. Mom found out and that was when she and the others began to train me. I trained hard. I never wanted to let a mistake of mine be the downfall of another. So I took the bruises and minor injuries without complaint; and I learned how to deal with it. Later on, I also wanted to help others beyond just punching bad-guys in the face. I had seen so many — my mother and her collegues — suffer from what they had grown up calling 'battle fatigue' or 'shell shock'. I wanted to help people who felt like they lost control over their lives. So, I studied psychology; specifically trauma and post-traumatic stress. I became a licensed therapist and began my career helping people not long after.

Later on, about two years after I joined the Justice League, came Oliver Queen. The goofball with a heart of gold. He had overcome his own problems and somehow, in between protecting the world, training, and doing my best to keep everyone together, we got together. He was sweet and kept his head on, and was more than willing to laugh and be human with the League. …And then he took on Roy. A pre-teen who had problems of his own, and was lost on his way to finding who he was. I had no issues with Ollie wanting to take him in. I had no issue with Ollie telling him that he was also Green Arrow. But I had been on the verge of putting my foot down and straight up object to Roy becoming a hero. But when he insisted it was his decision, I remembered my childhood and adolescence, and I had nothing to say. When Ollie contemplated adopting Roy I stood behind him full force. Ollie had been so, so heartbroken when Roy stopped being his partner. I missed having him around as well. When I wasn't looking, I had grown attached to him. He was like my own and as much as he was Oliver's kid. Oftentimes he and Ollie would argue, but I would've take it over Ollie's heartbroken silence.

And, of course, was the induction of the League's covert unit. I knew the boys had wanted their elder to join them, but that was beyond my control. I focused on making sure the younger heroes — they hate the term 'sidekick' — and made sure that they would be prepared for any combat situation. I had also requested to be their council. An ear to listen when the battlefield had been more harrowing than expected. I don't normally pick favorites; but to be honest, if I had to choose one among them, then Superboy would definitely be it. He started out as rash, abrasive, aggressive, and even a bit arrogant. But I tried to see beyond that. What I saw was a scared young man, trying to find his place.

It almost reminded me of someone else I knew.

I was pleased when he and the others started to stand on their own feet. Beginning to come into their own. As a girl, I never thought I'd be a mother, but like Roy, I started to see each of them; Superboy, Miss Martian, Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis, and Zatanna as my own, just a little. I have become everything I wanted to be, and then some. I am two halves of the same heart born as Dinah Lance, taken the mantle Black Canary. I am a daughter, a legacy, a hero, a counselor, a mother, a teacher, and friend.


	2. Shayera Thal-Hawkgirl

I had been an obedient girl growing up.

I did as I was told and I never made a fuss. That didn't change when Thanagar was invaded. The council had attempted to deflect and negotiate, but the Gordanians had been conquerors. From the time I was nine years old my world had been at war. Peace became both a ghost of the past and a far-away dream. War began to shape the way I perceived the world around me. I became aggressive, uncompromising, and war-like. I became restless.

I became an officer of the militia of Thanaldar when I was fourteen. People, including children, began disappearing. One of them had been my neighbor, a little girl by the name of Iriquil. She along with many, many others had all disappeared with little to no trace. We never found her. Those disappearances are a mystery that plagues me whenever I give it thought. I enlisted in the Thanagarian military when I was fifteen. Thanagar had been at war for six long years. I wanted to help end it. I started out as a simple foot soldier and in three years had worked my way to sergeant. That was when something changed.

I got tired.

We had been fighting a war for half my life and we weren't getting anywhere. If anything at all, we were surviving, but that was where it ended. I couldn't fight anymore. Not as a soldier at least. So, when I became Second Lieutenant I switched from active duty to the science division. Peace would not be achieved through surrender, we had tried negotiations and in exchange lost an eighth of our population. Fighting harder didn't work so the only way I could think of was to fight smarter.

It was there I met Captain Katar Hol, the head of the scientific division. He was one of the many great minds that had developed the Hyperspace Bypass Generator. It was supposed to work much like a modern Zeta Tube, but on a much larger scale. Entire fleets could launch blitz attacks and retreat with minimal loss. In that time… The captain and I… I don't know how we did it. Through the blood, and death, and the rage of war, we managed to find love. Something good to hold onto. We both felt hope we hadn't felt in years. We married when I was nineteen.

A year after, the hyperspace generator had finally been completed. Thanagar needed the edge desperately, so we pushed testing to the limits. But when we were in the final stages of testing; that was when something went wrong. The generator went on the fritz. Katar and I were caught in the ensuing beam. We were left stranded near Earth. We would've died out in the vacuum of space… Had the Justice League not seen and saved us.

The League was kind and offered us refuge for as long as we needed. We stayed for about a year, learning about the planet that hosted us, and searching for a way home. In the final days of the first year, was when we finally got the terrible news. Thanagar had lost. It's people all dead or enslaved. My home, my once beautiful home, with all its beauty, its people, lost at the hands of bloodthirsty warlords.

For the first time in my life, I mourned.

I will never be able to return to Thanagar, the utopian planet. My mother and father, my friends, all dead or lost forever. I could never go back. So, I did the only thing I could, I moved forward. Earth, this planet, would be my new home. This strange planet where so many people, like my people before, just wanted to live their lives to the very best. I wanted to help protect it. Katar and I officially joined the Justice League, debuting in the Imperium Invasion. At first I worried that people would reject us, I remember Superman telling us that Earth wasn't perfect, and that people who looked different sometimes weren't accepted.

They did accept us, for the most part.

I remember the aftermath of the battle, I remember a few children walking up to us, asking us if we were angels. I had no idea what an angel was. A little girl, with red hair like me told us that angels were people with wings sent from Heaven to help people. I told her that I didn't know where Heaven was, but I was here to help. I think they liked that answer. When I was a little girl, I never knew what I wanted to be. Then I never got the chance. I think I like the person I am now. I am two halves of the same heart Shayera Thal, and Hawkgirl. I am a science officer, a lieutenant, a wife, a war survivor, a Justice League member, and friend.


	3. Artemis Crock-Artemis

I'm not gonna lie, my life hasn't been a cakewalk.

I am the youngest daughter of two assassins, one of whom was imprisoned when I was ten. They raised my sister and me by training us for the family business. My specialty was the bow and arrow, though dad insisted that I learn close combat as well. After mom was put in a wheelchair and locked up, training was brutal, and more than once we were dumped into situations where neither of us were equipped to save our own skins, much less each other. But whenever we were allowed to work together, we always made it out on top. I guess that's why it hurt so much when Jade ran away from home. I missed her so much.

Aside from rigorous assassin training, I think my childhood was decent, if only scraping the bottom of the barrel. I went to school, and dad insisted that I had an extracurricular, if only to keep our cover. I chose music and played bass. It was simple enough and the twang of strings was strangely comforting. And aside from school and training, and sometimes being dumped in a strange place with no idea how I got there, dad let me enjoy childhood. One of the few good memories I have is Jade and I reading Alice in Wonderland. Jade's favorite character had been the Cheshire Cat, able to disappear and reappear at will. But if Jade was a Cheshire cat, then I was Alice, because my life was Wonderland. A weird, uncontrollable march of events where I didn't know what to do half the time, and screwed up trying the other.

About four years after Jade left, when I was fourteen, I started sneaking out and patrolling the streets. It was mostly to get away from it all, at first. Then I realized I could use the training my father had pushed on us could be used to defend people who needed help. So, I made myself a suit and started clearing the streets. Mostly minor crooks, muggers. I hated killing, so I never used fatal measures. There was one night I saw a lady being robbed and I fired a warning arrow at the guy's feet. I guess he thought I missed because he snatched her purse and ran. His mistake. I put the next one through the sole of his right shoe and he tripped and fell on his face. His reaction was hilarious. He freaked out and started panicking, pulling out a knife and looking frenzied. I took a closer look at him and realized he was a total amateur with nothing better to do. His clothes were decent quality and his stance lacked any experience, not to mention the shaking.

Hey, all that training was good for something.

Another arrow and the knife went flying, and a fourth in the space between his legs sent him running away screaming, the purse forgotten. The lady picked it up then ran in the other direction, hopefully home or somewhere safe. Not for the first time, I wondered how the heck Gotham had become such a crime-ridden city in the first place, then I turned. There was something in the shadows, watching me. My first instinct was to notch an arrow in the direction and I did, but when nothing happened, I backed away, making sure to keep my bow trained on it. Looking back on it now, that was probably Batman, likely assessing what kind of person was working on his turf. He never confronted me about it then, nor after I joined the team; so I think he approved… However unlikely that may be. I guess from there he figured out who I was and approached my mom two years later. I still don't know how the heck he figured all of that out, but he's Batman, that usually settles it.

And then there was my first day on the team. That was a trip. As I'm being introduced, this guy walks in wearing a swimsuit and trips over his own two feet. Not the greatest first impression. I thought he was funny though, and it did take a lot of the tension I was feeling away. Of course, then Red Arrow showed up and then I don't know what happened, really. It was as if Wally – the guy who tripped – suddenly decided he didn't like my face. I had just joined and now _Baywatch_ was on my case for just being here. Ironically enough, we started dating a few months later, and we're still going strong. Like I said before, Alice in Wonderland.

When I was a little girl, I thought I'd follow my parent's footsteps and wind up an emotionless, cold-blooded killer for hire. Now I help protect the world, I'm a student at Stamford, I have a boyfriend who loves me, and strangest of all: I have friends. I have friends who know my past, know who I used to be and still accepted me. I never thought I'd have that. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to change my life, and I'm glad that this one is mine. I am Artemis Crock, codename: Artemis. I'm an archer, a student, a hero, a sister, and a friend.


End file.
